CURRENT MISSION

Experience the globe with exuberance and vibrancy, giving of my energy, grokking those around me who people the earth.

ABOUT ME

I seek out genuine interactions with people of all walks of life. I am fascinated with languages, artistic expression, and lifelong learning/ teaching.

PHILOSOPHY

Life is the experiment, reality is the substrate, dreams are the hypothesis, serendipity is the method, chaos is the data, love and time the immaterial materials, the mystery occupies the emptiness and the theory comes together in retrospect.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

Right now, I am traveling in the US, having just returned from a year of teaching English in China. (Previous to that, I was a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Dominican Republic). I am currently trying to get my feet under me, possibly in San Francisco, and suss out a sustainable arrangement in the city.

If I were to stay at a host's home, I would hopefully be able to provide some appreciated contribution: massage, cleaning, cooking, gardening, animal/ plant care, fabulous company, fun and games and good times.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I have lived in a co-operative housing situation in Boulder, Colorado, and really enjoyed the dynamic. I met many couch surfers in Boulder who were using CS2 as their networking tool. Everyone I interacted with seemed down-to-earth, interesting, and bastions of excellent positivity in uncertain circumstances.

Interests

I write travel blogs, and photograph the world around me to share with friends and family who are not as free to travel. It's hard for me to justify going on an "exotic" immersion trip to Bolivia, Peru, Thailand, Colorado, or California without being able to communicate my experience in pictures and words. I am deeply connected to the art of massage and healing touch, as well as thrilled to let my creativity loose in the kitchen. I cook with "ethnic" influences from all over the world, nutritious dishes with lots of fresh produce and whole grains. I am a fructophile, seeking out new-to-me fruits all over the world, and collect knowledge of local plants that are edible or have medicinal uses.

• animals
• arts
• folklore
• acting
• dining
• cooking
• crafts
• gardening
• boating
• traveling
• painting
• bouldering
• origami
• magic
• music
• canoeing
• tennis
• languages
• tourism
• volunteering

Music, Movies, and Books

I enjoy movies of all type, but have not seen nearly enough. I prefer independent films over Hollywood productions, and I don't know much about or follow famous actors.

Music is a passion that drives away the sadness and desperation from the lives of many. Live music is a sacred communion with which I vibe, adding my voice or dancing when inspired. I groove to all kinds of styles, from folk to latin pop to electronica.

Books: mainly non-fiction, with good creative modern fiction, and hilarious memoirs of writers like Dave Eggers and Sedaris.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I have spiraled down a tributary into the Amazon in a broken boat for three days while hanging out in two long rows of hammocks chatting with local botanists, got stuck on a clump of weeds, and rocked out to merengue music videos while eating mashed boiled green bananas until we were finally rescued by a riverboat from Iquitos. My friend and I were just coming from a small settlement near Yurimaguas where a photographer acting as our guide took us to visit one of the seven last Shamans in the tradition, who blessed us with ceremonies to protect us on our travels by chewing up several kinds of leaves and barks and spitting them on our head, neck, belly, hands, and feet. He wouldn't accept enough money, so we treated him to canazo, the locally brewed cane alcohol which would take the paint off any surface, and drank and laughed and ate sour oranges and watched his granddaughters play with their tiny leoncito monkeys on their tragic little leashes, until the sun warned it would soon set and we headed back across the water in a dugout canoe. I have felt the magic protective presence he left behind our neck, ever since.

Teach, Learn, Share

I can teach: massage, German/French/Mexican/Thai cooking, languages (Spanish, basic German and Mandarin), candle-making, non-traditional food sources (urban foraging), macramé, beading, origami, assorted hand-crafts.

I would like to learn: languages (Portuguese, Italian, Thai or any other language in which you are a native speaker), any art form you're fascinated with, poi and fire spinning, python the programming language, soldering RGB LEDs into circuits I can embed into tennis balls for an art project I want to create. Anything else you're passionate about and want to share!

Countries I’ve Visited

Bolivia, Cambodia, Canada, Chile, France, Germany, Guatemala, Honduras, Italy, Monaco, Peru, Spain, Switzerland, Thailand, United Kingdom

Countries I’ve Lived In

China, Dominican Republic, Mexico, United States